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College basketball: San Jose State women fall in MW tournament opener

Associated Press

Posted:
03/10/2014 09:38:05 PM PDT

Updated:
03/10/2014 10:43:02 PM PDT

The San Jose State women's basketball team set a school record for points in a season, but the Spartans couldn't keep up with UNLV down the stretch and saw their season end in a 78-75 loss in the first round of the Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas on Monday.

The 10th-seeded Spartans led 66-61 with 6:04 left but were outscored 17-9 the rest of the way by seventh-seeded UNLV.

"I'm really proud of my kids," said first-year SJSU coach Jamie Craighead, whose team finished 11-19. "I thought they stepped up tonight and made big plays, especially (Classye James and Rebecca Woodberry). They came up big, but as a team we just came up a few possessions short."

James scored 22 points, Woodberry added 20 and Ta'Rea Cunnigan had 11 in the loss. SJSU finished with 2,308 points this season, breaking the mark of 2,301 set by the 1979-80 squad.

Connecticut 72, Louisville 52: Breanna Stewart scored 20 points and top-ranked Connecticut beat No. 3 Louisville to win the inaugural American Athletic Conference tournament. With the victory, UConn (34-0) became the 14th team to enter the NCAA tournament without a loss. It's the sixth time that the Huskies have accomplished that feat. They've gone on to win the national championship four of those years.

Pac-12 honors: San Jose native Aaron Gordon of Arizona was named Pac-12 Conference Freshman of the Year by the league's coaches. The Archbishop Mitty High product also collected third-team All-America honors from The Sporting News.

Three Bay Area players landed on the 10-man all-Pac-12 team: Cal's Justin Cobbs and Stanford's Dwight Powell and Chasson Randle.

Stanford junior Anthony Brown, who bounced back from a season-long injury last season to average 13.1 points, was named the Pac-12's Most Improved Player.

Arizona guard Nick Johnson was voted Pac-12 Player of the Year and Sean Miller was Coach of the Year.

Stanford's Josh Huestis was included on the five-man all-defensive unit.

Gators stay No. 1: Florida and Wichita State, which completed an undefeated regular season, are the top two teams in the AP poll for the third straight week. The Gators (29-2) received 50 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel. The Shockers (34-0) got the other 15.

Villanova moved from sixth to third, while Arizona dropped one spot to fourth. Kentucky dropped out from 25th, the fourth preseason No. 1 to fall out of the poll in the same season.

Kansas: Star freshman center Joel Embiid is expected to miss the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. Embiid got a second opinion on his ailing lower back from a specialist in Los Angeles on Monday, and the school says the physician confirmed the original diagnosis of a stress fracture.

Delaware 75, William & Mary 74: Top-seeded Delaware won the Colonial Athletic Association championship and earned a berth in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 15 years.

Manhattan 71, Iona 68: Manhattan held on to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title and its first NCAA bid in a decade.

Wofford 56, Western Carolina 53: The Terriers won the Southern Conference championship and a spot in the NCAA tournament for the third time in five years, but their first since 2011.

Staff writer Jeff Faraudo and The Associated Press contributed to this report.